by Jessica Schneider

Created on: April 15, 2009

There are many different ways one could approach when reviewing this book. On one hand, it's an excellent source when thinking of Fidel Castro. Not so much because of historical and objective accuracy, but one of Castro's character. On the other hand, could one claim this a pleasant read? Unless you are just a die-hard Fidel fanatic, I think most readers would find this boring.

Just to give a bit of background, the book is a spoken autobiography, and so basically it's a 600-page interview with Fidel Castro. The interview, conducted by Ignacio Ramonet, consists of unchallenging questions, and ones that don't really focus Castro in his replies. For example, a good interviewer should be asking questions that prompt discussion, for the most interesting and entertaining interviews are those where you have a discussion going on between the interviewer and interviewee. Such is not the case with this book. For one, Ramonet doesn't ever challenge Castro on the things he says. Just to give an example, Castro spends a decent length of time talking about Che Guevara and what a great and "gentle" man he was, yet Ramonet doesn't even bother asking Castro to comment about Che's controversy and why many consider him to be nothing more than a mass murderer.

A good interviewer would have at least challenged that fact, even if he didn't necessarily agree with it. Another example is when Castro speaks about his childhood and how he loathed authority. Ironic then that one who loathed authority as much as he did eventually grew into a dictator. None of this is mentioned, and these examples only allow me to conclude that the entire interview is pretty much 600 pages of puffery.

Yet, having said that, the positive side is that readers will be given an "in" into Castro's character. Such as, if one wanted to write a book about him, this would be an excellent source to quote from. But does that mean that Castro is telling the complete truth? Not likely. And given that the interviewer does not challenge him in any way, readers are left only hearing one side of the story.

Just to give a bit of an example, here's what Castro says about Che:

"Che carried out the mission I'd sent him onWe lost seven combatants and had eight wounded, several of them seriousl. Once we'd achieved our victory, we provided aid to those who needed it. Che and the garrison doctor treated the enemy wounded, where there were more of than our own, and then they treated ours. Che treated all of them. You can't imagine that

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